10 Ways to Get a Headstart When Summer’s Over!

Summer vacations are coming to an end and the kids are heading back to school in a few weeks. For salespeople this means business is about to get hopping again. Decision makers are back in the office, a new quarter is set to begin and it’s busy season until Thanksgiving.

Wise salespeople can get a headstart and take full advantage of the next 3 months by taking some simple actions now. By the holidays, these salespeople can be enjoying some nice commission checks!
Take action now:

1. Schedule business reviews with your current clients. This is a great time to sit down with exisiting customers and review the work you currently do, understand their changing business needs and, together, make sure that your solutions are still meeting their needs effectively. These meetings are a great chance to ensure superior customer service, uncover new opportunities and gain referrals. Get this meeting done now and you’ll be well into new sales cycles by the time everyone else is just getting back to work.

2. Call prospective customers to set appointments. Research your prospective customers and call them to discuss a business need they have. Salespeople have a unique visibility into many companies. They can offer to share best practices and ideas from their experience. I have had my very best, high-level, most-rewarding appointments with this approach. People helping people! Again, you’ll uncover opportunities or determine if you should pursue other prospective customers instead – you’ll either have a headstart or free up some valuable selling time.

3. Start having at least one networking meeting per week right away. Get and give a referral once per week. Get the meetings with those new referrals on the calendar. You’ll find new customers before the summer ends.

4. Do your clients a favor. If you start a sales cycle with a prospective customer you are doing them a favor. If there is an opportunity it means they have a need that is going unmet. If you take the initiative to start the conversation and begin moving them toward a solution (a sale), you help them solve a problem sooner. Be the trigger for your client. They will be better for it, too.

5. Share some helpful news with clients and prospective clients. Send a newsletter that shares information that may help your clients run their business more effectively. Your expertise is valuable to them – share it. You’ll be helping them and you’ll be top of mind as they get “back to school”.

6. Get your own team together now and set goals for the Back to School season. SWOT your business and take action now.

7. Get your internal customer teams together (implementation, sales, managment) for your top customers and put a strategy in place for the upcoming months. Figure out ways to help them more effectively, solve a problem they have or surprise them with new value or solutions they didn’t know existed. Contact them and get moving!

8. Get a Back to School outfit. OK, maybe that’s just me! A new suit makes those Back to School meetings that much better.

9. Get back into a good routine. Summer days are often slower and salespeople tend to start later and end earlier. Stop that now – start using every minute of selling time available now.

10. Take your clients out for coffee and lunch – at least one per week. Solidify those relationships and uncover opportunities over lattes.

The important thing is to take action now. Contact clients and begin your sales cycles before everyone else does.

If you get off the beach one month before everyone else, you’ll reap the rewards.